City agrees to move ahead on Ninth and Kentucky street project

A project to improve traffic flow near Ninth and Kentucky streets is set to begin in July.

Lawrence city commissioners on Tuesday approved a plan to widen Ninth Street between Kentucky and Tennessee streets to accommodate a center turn lane.

“I have seen a lot of accidents at those two intersections,” Mayor Bob Schumm said. “This really will be an improvement.”

The design also will allow for eastbound and westbound bike lanes on Ninth Street.

The widening of the street will cause a loss of some on street parking on the south side of Ninth Street. But commissioners have brokered a deal with nearby property owner Todd Thompson, who operates a law office along the street, to build two recessed parking stalls to serve properties along the south side of the street.

The entire project is expected to cost $165,000. A grant from the Kansas Department of Transportation is scheduled to pay for 90 percent of the project, with the city paying for the remaining costs.

Construction is expected to begin in July and be completed in September.

In other news, city commissioners:

• Deferred for one week a decision on a new location for the Downtown Lawrence Farmers Market’s Tuesday market. Commissioners asked staff members to inquire about the availability of a privately owned parking lot near the northeast corner of Ninth and Rhode Island streets.

• Agreed to close Massachusetts Street between 11th and 13th streets from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 28, for the Rev it Up Hot Rod Hullaballo car show.

Comments

OMG the following year is going to be h@LL driving around Lawrence...what with Iowa underconstruction, now 9th street and there were a few other main drags mentioned. Can't they do this in increments. Get one area completed first then move on to the next to not snarl up traffic. This is going to keep a lot of people home and away from shopping. Then there will be complaints about how the stores are suffering from lack of profits. Just doesn't make sense to me.

That wouldn't be any fun, now would it? Some things never change---it was like this for the almost thirteen years I lived in Lawrence. Planning falls by the wayside, along with intelligence and logical thinking.